Sometimes, I start to lose all motivation for doing this, for writing about video game news, or even reviewing them. I think it is a self confidence issue, where I assume that the work I put out is bad, that nobody cares for it, and that the entire action is some sort of time wasting activity, even though I do enjoy writing about games at the end of the day. It’s just that… I don’t know. I’ll just shut up and talk about the Pokemons.
Even though every new Pokemon has been leaked, the regular Sun and Moon updates are still being made as the game’s release date becomes imminent. This week’s trailer in particular actually revealed quite a lot for those who are ignoring any and all leaks, starting with the final evolutions of the starters. Rowlet’s final evolution, Decidueye, is a robin hood-esque bird archer whose coolness is quadrupled considering that they aren’t a stupid Grass Flying type, but a Grass Ghost. Love it! Litten’s final evolution, Incineroar, is a ferocious edgelord of a tiger wrestler man that thankfully avoids being the fourth Fire Fighting starter by being a Fire Dark type. While Popplio’s final evolution, Primarina, is a lovely and majestic looking seal mermaid who is easily the most elegant water type since Milotic, except they boast the advantageous Water Fairy type. Even though Milotic should have totally been a Water Fairy type. Or at least able to learn Dazzling Gleam.
The other three Guardian Deities of the Alola region were also revealed, with all of them following a very set theme by being small black creatures who can seal themselves away in a hard shell. While a bit unconventional, I do like their overall design scheme, and it’s nice to see the legendary trio of this generation actually be a quadrio. As a plus, they don’t have lore that doesn’t give them much mythological significance. Anyways, they are Tapu Lelee, a pink and girlish looking Psychic Fairy type, Tapu Bulu, a bulky and bullish Psychic Grass type, and Tapu Fini, a Psychic Water type whose shell resembles a sword fish, yet looks like a little mermaid.
Cosmog was revealed after that, being a Psychic type creature whose nebula design scheme and certain features imply that they may have some sort of story significance. Perhaps being related to the Moon legendary Lunala. Followed by Alolan Persian, who is just like regular Persian, but with a really fat head, grey fur, a blue forehead gem instead of a red one, and is a Dark type. It anatomically makes no sense, makes the Pokemon open to many Garfield comparisons and jokes, and is kind of adorable in a weird way.
While this is all cool, it pales in comparison to the reveal of Mount Lanakila. An area where you can battle and team up with characters from prior games, such as Cynthia and Wally, which seemed like a cool little post-game nostalgia trip, but then it was shown that Red and Blue from the original games return in content that is heavily implied to have at least some narrative relevance, and aged up the characters into young adults whose redesigns are built around the tropical weather of Alola. Being such a sucker for continuity in these games, seeing something like this, and not like the Pokemon World Tournament from Black 2 and White 2, is kind of incredible, and amplified my anticipation for this game by a whole new magnitude. It will certainly serve as a nice swansong for the 3DS, as I’m probably going to shove that system in a bin somewhere once the Switch comes out.
Speaking of the Switch, Nintendo announced when they are going to announce more details about their upcoming hybrid game system. The system will be fully revealed on January 12, 2017 via a livestreamed presentation and media event that will place this burgeoning system in the hands of the eager media for the first time ever. Meaning that most new information about the system for the next… fifth of a year will come from games media people who do some actual journalism and figure out fairly basic things about the system, such as where is its charging port is located. In all seriousness though, Laura Kate Dale has been doing a great job with getting information about this system in the hands of the public. 
Moving into some more minor happenings, after a lacking launch that led to massive drops in the player base, and an attempted rebranding as a Free to Play title, Turtle Rock’s Evolve will no longer be receiving updates going forward, and while the game is still available to play online, this once ambitious title that was bogged down due to longevity issues and microtransactions is now, effectively, dead. It is always disheartening to see something like this happen to a game, but with the AAA multiplayer scene being what it is, this is unfortunately unsurprising.
What is surprising is the announcement that a Klonoa movie is in development. Yes, the mostly forgotten Bandai Namco platforming series will be receiving an animated film adaptation by way of the United States based production company, Henshin. Now, this in itself is a very odd piece of news, one that will likely manifest itself into a small scale and lightly budgeted 2D animated project, but the two people attached, Rob Pereyda (Hensihin founder) and Hitoshi Ariga (manga artist) both have enough quality work under their belts to make the prospect of this film being good a distinct possibility. 